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For a while this season, the Blues looked like a daily Jekyll and Hyde situation. Under coach Mike Yeo, it still has been Jekyll and Hyde but based on streaks. The last 14 games include two winning streaks of 6 and 3 games and a losing streak of 5 games.
Last night the Blues bested the Anaheim Ducks late in regulation, in large part due to contributions from some reasonably unheralded players, Robert Bortuzzo, Ryan Reaves and Joel Edmundson.
The Blues jumped to an early lead on a play started by Jay Bouwmeester at his own blue line. Bouwmeester intercepted a pass or dump in at his own blue line and moved the puck quickly up to Tarasenko near the Ducks’ blue line. Vladimir Tarasenko ended up flipped a shot through a couple of bodies and past John Gibson who likely had trouble seeing the shot.
The Ducks evened the score on a controversial goal that was initially disallowed midway through the period. After review, the goal was counted. On the play Jori Lehtera makes contact with Corey Perry who slides in front of Jake Allen. As Perry slides by Allen, his stick goes into Allen. Perry pulls the stick, hooking Allen and keeping him from being able to attempt a save. Given all of the components of the rule and the play, it seemed like a coin flip as to how they would rule and the Ducks got the favorable call.
The Ducks took the lead late in the period due to terrible defensive zone coverage by the Blues. The Ducks break into the Blues zone 3 on 4. Dmitrij Jaskin and Carl Gunnarsson don’t communicate, leaving the far side Duck open. After the puck gets passed to him, they both chase, leaving the near side Duck (Wagner) free as he drives to the net for the goal. As the Ducks entered the zone, the Blues should have been in great shape but bad reads and decisions allowed the goal.
Ryan Reaves evened the score less than 5 minutes into the second period. Ryan Reaves starts the play with a great forecheck behind the Ducks’ net. Jaden Schwartz makes a great play getting off a good shot as he draws a delayed penalty. Reaves finishes the play by burying he rebound in front of the net, negating the delayed penalty.
Paul Stastny opens the scoring just 25 seconds into the third period, the second time of the night that the Blues scored on the Ducks in the 1st minute of a period, something the Ducks had not allowed all season. Jakob Silfverberg makes the Blues pay for yet another too many men on the ice penalty midway through the period.
With less than a minute left, Robert Bortuzzo is carrying the puck up the right side of the ice. As he gets to the Ducks’ blue line, he is looking to dump the puck in but he hears Paul Stastny yelling to him to “skate it”. Bortuzzo goes around the defending Duck player into the corner and finds Joel Edmundson in the left circle. Edmundson buries a nice wrist shot for the game winning goal.
Tonight will take on a weary New York Islanders team at the Scottrade. In what has to be one of the oddest scheduling situations I have ever seen, tonight’s game will be the last of the Islanders’ nine game road trip. The Islanders have performed well going 5-2-1 so far.
More than 40% of their road victories this season have been earned on the current road trip. Their recent success has helped propel them into the final wild card spot in the Eastern conference though they have a number of teams nipping at their heels.
The Islanders have struggled on the power play, 26th in the NHL and have been average on the penalty kill, 16th. They have been strong offensively, sitting 8th in goals per game but weak defensively (25th) likely due to giving up the 6th most shots per game.
John Tavares leads the Islanders with 25 goals and 57 points in 66 games this season. He has 5 goals and 2 assists in 11 games in his career against the Blues. Nick Leddy leads their defensemen with 36 points. Expect Thomas Greiss to get the start in net. Greiss has been strong against the Blues with 5 wins and only 1 loss while posting a 93.2% save percentage.
The Blues will likely turn to Carter Hutton tonight who will be facing the Islanders for the first time in his career. Speaking of the Blues lineup, Colton Parayko left the game in the 2nd period last night and is questionable for tonight’s contest. Another lineup change will be Ivan Barbashev replacing Jori Lehtera.
Expect the lines to start out like this tonight:
Schwartz – Stastny – Tarasenko
Steen – Berglund - Perron
Jaskin – Barbashev – Paajarvi
Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves
Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo
Gunnarsson – Parayko/Schmaltz
Edmundson – Bortuzzo
Hutton
Interestingly, the Blues last four home games have been decided in regulation by a single goal. Also, make sure to say welcome to former Blue Doug Weight, the Islanders interim head coach.
It’s a great day for hockey.
Fellow Hockeybuzz bloggers
Nashville Predator's Paul McCann,
Winnipeg Jet's Peter Tessier and
Minnesota Wild's Dan Wallace have generously agreed to a friendly charity wager. We were hoping to do the whole division but don't have it fully represented yet. The blogger whose team finishes the highest the standings at the end of the year gets to pick a charity to whom the others donate in their name.
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